Philip Neri, Founder of the Oratorians
26 May -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Pastors, page 483
Born in 1515 in Florence, Philip Neri went to Rome when he
was eighteen, resolved to give his life to God. He studied
hard and led a noticeably austere life and, after a time
living the life of a virtual hermit in the Roman catacombs,
founded a fraternity to assist pilgrims and the sick. He
was ordained in 1551 and he joined a company of priests
working in San Girolamo Church, where he soon became a
popular confessor and spiritual guide. As many regularly
came to the oratory in that church, where he held spiritual
conferences, other priests were attracted to his teaching
and the Congregation of the Oratory was founded. It finally
received papal approval in 1575. Philip was such a popular
and revered person in the city that he was treated almost
like a living saint, even instructing the Pope to grant
absolution to the French monarch, Henry IV, to prevent a
political catastrophe. This kind and gentle priest gave his
life for the service of others and died on this day in the
year 1595.